The Power of Dreams While Writing a Novel

This has been a bit of a tough week for me. It's now December and I'm rushing a bit to complete all my 2012 projects before 2013 sneaks up on us. I'm finishing two non-fiction books, have a children's novel that I swore to my editor would be finished a month ago, and I'm revising and editing The Courtship, which is due out next year. I'd consider rewriting the entire thing, but I think my editor might come at me with a pitchfork if I do that again.

So this had been a tough week. Too much to do and not quite enough time to finish it all. So what did I do? I took a nap. That's right. Four projects that really should have been finished in November still sitting on my plate, and I decide to take a good long nap. Why? Because when we sleep, we dream. And dreams inspire us.

I certainly needed some of that inspiration this week. Writing a novel is a tricky thing. It needs skill, talent, luck, and inspiration. I can command the skill and the talent, and the luck is usually with me anyway, but the inspiration can run off just when I needed it most. So I used my dreams as a source of inspiration. People in my dreams became characters in my novels.  Places become settings I'm proud of. Plots come out of the rather random things that happen in my dreams. And it all comes together, sometimes over several nights (or widely spaced naps).

This is what I did this week. And while it might seem like I spent a lot of time doing nothing but sleeping, I actually got far more done this week than I did last week. If the next four week go as well, I'll meet my goals with time to spare.

Here's hoping.